East Mississippi Correctional Facility was supposed to house the state's psychiatrically disabled prisoners, providing intensive treatment services. [...] Instead, MTC ran it as a for-profit hellhole.

East Mississippi Correctional Facility is a cesspool. Prisoners are underfed and routinely held in cells that are infested with rats and have no working toilets or lights. Although designated as a facility to care for prisoners with special needs and serious psychiatric disabilities, ECMF denies prisoners even the most rudimentary mental health care services. Many prisoners have attempted to commit suicide; some have succeeded. One prisoner is now legally blind after EMCF failed to provide his glaucoma medications and take him to a specialist, and another had part of his finger amputated after he was stabbed and developed gangrene.​

This video is the story of two people forever damaged by their time at East Mississippi Correctional Facility. Prison sentences mean time behind bars, not abuse. The Mississippi Department of Corrections bears ultimate responsibility for these atrocities happening on their watch. Share this video to help end the abuse.



See this extensive report at News.MIC (with many links)

"If You Need That Proof America's Prison System Is Broken, Just Look to Mississippi"

More Information via Courthouse News

Psychologists Shot Down Nine Times in 2007

Seen in this report

The National Psychologist reported in its Sept/Oct 2007 issue that prescription privileges bills to give psychologists prescription privileges in nine different U.S. states failed in each and every case. Most never left committee, reflecting the leadership’s unease of granting prescription rights to non-medical professionals.

The bills failed in Hawaii, California, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee and Oregon. It came closest to passing in Hawaii, but was vetoed by the governor when it reached her desk.

What’s at stake here?

Two powerful professional organizations — the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association — butting heads over whether it is safe to allow psychologists, with additional medical training, to prescribe psychiatric medications.

Psychologists receive little or no formal training in medicine in their graduate studies today (as most physicians who are not psychiatrists receive little or no formal training in psychological theory and practices). If psychologists gained greater prescribing authority, they could rely less on medical doctors, such as psychiatrists, to prescribe common psychiatric medications.

Psychologists argue that there is a demand for such services in rural and areas throughout the country that currently do not have coverage by psychiatrists.

Doctors argue such privileges are already available to professionals who want them by undergoing medical school or similar training.

Psychologists believe they don’t need such intensive training because psychiatric medications are largely limited to affecting the mood, and don’t interact as much with other body systems.

As anyone who has looked into the side effects of psycho-active drugs knows, this last point is a woefully naive take on the situation. I can only imagine what additional horror stories await us if this were to go through.

Criminal Activity Began After Starting Psychiatric Drugs

From this report

A former secretary for an Adrian law firm was slapped Wednesday with maximum prison terms of up to 14 years. Harriet Laura Northrup was also ordered to repay $161,353 she is accused of embezzling from the firm and from a mentally impaired client.

[...]

Northrup was accused of taking nearly $120,000 from Kralick’s law firm by writing and cashing forged checks in 2005 and 2006. Another $44,000 was taken from the estate of an elderly woman whom Northrup served as conservator.

Janet Williams told the court her mother, Beverly Bailey, was left penniless by Northrup. When she was appointed conservator, Northrup was trusted by the family, by Kralick and by the courts, said Williams.

“She deceived us all,” Williams said. She even took $29,000 from college trust accounts for Bailey’s grandchildren, Williams said.

“We feel Harriet deserves the maximum punishment, not a few months in jail,” Williams said.

In a written statement read by Jameson, Northrup asked not to be sentenced to prison.

“What useful purpose would be served?” she asked. “Please allow me a second chance as you have provided for others.”

Northrup’s statement also said the embezzlements were not worth the emotional suffering they caused.

“Nothing is worth the pain I have caused my family and friends and Kralicks and the Baileys,” she said. “Remorseful is not even close to what I feel.”

In arguing for leniency, Jameson told the court that Northrup was diagnosed with depression and placed on medication at about the time the embezzlements began. He said she told him about strange urges to gamble and mentioned family health problems and housing expenses in explaining where the stolen money went.

“She intends to pay the restitution in this matter,” Jameson said.

Pickard said the court has not seen a penny of the money returned since Northrup was arrested in Florida and returned to Michigan in April.

“With the amount taken it’s hard to believe some of the money isn’t there,” Pickard said.

Also, the number of separate crimes over the two-year period, the abuse of authority and victimization of a vulnerable person that are involved in the case all help justify exceeding sentence guidelines, Pickard said.

He also gave her maximum sentences of 80 months to 10 years in prison for an embezzlement charge and 40 months to five years for a false pretenses charge.

Northrup’s sentencing was adjourned last week after she filed a motion to withdraw her guilty pleas, claiming she did not understand what she was doing at the time. She dropped the request Wednesday without explanation.

Psychologist enters plea in fraud case

Via the Jackson Sun

Jackson psychologist Dr. Lorne Allan Semrau entered a not guilty plea in federal court Wednesday after he was indicted Monday on fraud charges, said Semrau's Covington-based attorney J. Houston Gordon.

A federal grand jury indicted Semrau, charging him with submitting $4 million worth of false and fraudulent claims to defraud health care benefits programs such as Medicare and Medicaid in Tennessee and Mississippi, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney David Kustoff on Tuesday.

Gordon on Wednesday said Dr. Semrau had no comment on the case.
"Dr. Semrau entered a not guilty plea in federal court,'' he said. ''We will let the process work its way. That's why we have courtrooms and juries."

Semrau, a native of Canada and a resident of Madison County, studied at Vanderbilt University. He is owner, president and CEO of Superior Life Care Services and Foundation Life Care Services.

Semrau's wife, Kat, owns The Painted Lady and Art Under a Hot Tin Roof in downtown Jackson.

When The Jackson Sun contacted Kat Semrau at home Wednesday evening, she referred all questions regarding her husband's case to their attorney.

The indictment charges Lorne Semrau with laundering money in order to continue the billing scheme.

According to the indictment, Semrau contracted with nursing homes in Tennessee and Mississippi to provide medication and mental health services to residents.

Semrau then allegedly contracted with psychiatrists to perform the services pursuant to the nursing home contracts, a press release said.

The indictment states that Semrau then implemented a billing scheme to defraud Medicare, Medicaid and others by submitting, through his companies, claims for services that were not provided by the physicians and claims that Semrau knew to be false.

The indictment further says that between 1999 and 2005 Semrau submitted fraudulent billings to health care benefit programs in excess of $4 million.

The health care charges carry a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.

This indictment follows an investigation by the U. S. Attorney's Health Care Fraud Task Force in the Western District of Tennessee, the release said.

Jackson psychiatrist accused of fraud pays settlement

From WMC-TV 5 out of Memphis, Tennessee

A Jackson psychiatrist has agreed to pay 216-thousand dollars to settle allegations of Medicare and Medicaid fraud after a multiyear investigation concluded.

The U-S Attorney's Office alleges that Doctor Viacin Faeza Jones misused billing codes and billed Medicare and Medicaid for excessive numbers of patients per day. A U-S Department of Justice release says that Jones billed for treating up to 116 patients in a single day and was paid about 30 to 125 dollars from Medicare or Medicaid for each claim.

The 216-thousand dollar settlement represents repayment for the wrongfully obtained funds, plus penalties in excess of 100-thousand dollars.